Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell

The ice shell on Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn, exhibits strong asymmetry between the northern and southern hemispheres, with all known geysers concentrated over the south pole, even though the expected pattern of tidal forced deformation should be symmetric between the north and south poles. Usi...

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Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Main Authors: Kang, Wanying, Flierl, Glenn
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: National Academy of Sciences 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7334464/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32546519
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001648117
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spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7334464 2023-05-15T18:22:30+02:00 Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell Kang, Wanying Flierl, Glenn 2020-06-30 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7334464/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32546519 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001648117 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7334464/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32546519 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001648117 https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtmlPublished under the PNAS license (https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtml) . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001648117 2020-12-20T01:19:35Z The ice shell on Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn, exhibits strong asymmetry between the northern and southern hemispheres, with all known geysers concentrated over the south pole, even though the expected pattern of tidal forced deformation should be symmetric between the north and south poles. Using an idealized ice-evolution model, we demonstrate that this asymmetry may form spontaneously, without any noticeable a priori asymmetry (such as a giant impact or a monopole structure of geological activity), in contrast to previous studies. Infinitesimal asymmetry in the ice shell thickness due to random perturbations are found to be able to grow indefinitely, ending up significantly thinning the ice shell at one of the poles, thereby allowing fracture formation there. Necessary conditions to trigger this hemispheric symmetry-breaking mechanism are found analytically. A rule of thumb we find is that, for Galilean and Saturnian icy moons, the ice shell can undergo hemispheric symmetry breaking only if the mean shell thickness is around 10 to 30 km. Text South pole PubMed Central (PMC) South Pole Thumb ENVELOPE(-64.259,-64.259,-65.247,-65.247) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 26 14764 14768
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Physical Sciences
spellingShingle Physical Sciences
Kang, Wanying
Flierl, Glenn
Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell
topic_facet Physical Sciences
description The ice shell on Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn, exhibits strong asymmetry between the northern and southern hemispheres, with all known geysers concentrated over the south pole, even though the expected pattern of tidal forced deformation should be symmetric between the north and south poles. Using an idealized ice-evolution model, we demonstrate that this asymmetry may form spontaneously, without any noticeable a priori asymmetry (such as a giant impact or a monopole structure of geological activity), in contrast to previous studies. Infinitesimal asymmetry in the ice shell thickness due to random perturbations are found to be able to grow indefinitely, ending up significantly thinning the ice shell at one of the poles, thereby allowing fracture formation there. Necessary conditions to trigger this hemispheric symmetry-breaking mechanism are found analytically. A rule of thumb we find is that, for Galilean and Saturnian icy moons, the ice shell can undergo hemispheric symmetry breaking only if the mean shell thickness is around 10 to 30 km.
format Text
author Kang, Wanying
Flierl, Glenn
author_facet Kang, Wanying
Flierl, Glenn
author_sort Kang, Wanying
title Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell
title_short Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell
title_full Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell
title_fullStr Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell
title_full_unstemmed Spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on Enceladus’s ice shell
title_sort spontaneous formation of geysers at only one pole on enceladus’s ice shell
publisher National Academy of Sciences
publishDate 2020
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7334464/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32546519
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001648117
long_lat ENVELOPE(-64.259,-64.259,-65.247,-65.247)
geographic South Pole
Thumb
geographic_facet South Pole
Thumb
genre South pole
genre_facet South pole
op_source Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7334464/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32546519
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001648117
op_rights https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtmlPublished under the PNAS license (https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtml) .
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001648117
container_title Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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container_start_page 14764
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